Abby Lawlor is an Associate Attorney at the firm Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt LLP, which provides cost-effective, first-rate legal services to labor unions and mission-consistent clients.

Prior to joining the firm, Abby was a Public Interest Fellow at the Public Rights Project, where she worked to promote greater public enforcement of state and local labor standards. Abby earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, with pro bono honors and certificates in Real Estate and Public Interest and Social Justice. During law school, Abby was a Peggy Browning Fellow at Powerswitch Action and a summer law clerk with Weinberg, Roger, and Rosenfeld. She also served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law and was an elected head steward in UAW 2865.

While earning her law degree, Abby worked as a graduate student researcher at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. Her research with Jane McAlevey on high-participation union negotiations was published by Oxford University Press in 2023. Abby has co-led trainings on high participation negotiations through the UC Berkeley Labor Center and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung global training program.

Before entering law school, Abby spent a decade supporting hospitality workers organizing around the country, including five years as a strategic researcher with UNITE HERE Local 8. She has also worked on numerous local candidate, initiative, and independent expenditure campaigns. She is a former executive board member of MLK Labor.